"Lee Hazlewood's partnership with Reprise Records in the 1960s resulted in timeless hits for Dean Martin and Nancy Sinatra. Throughout the decade, though, the label also released three of the artist's most highly regarded solo works: The N.S.V.I.P.'s, Friday's Child and Love and Other Crimes. Hazlewood's 1964 sophomore album The N.S.V.I.P.'s (Not So Very Important People) is the perfect companion to his classic debut, Trouble Is a Lonesome Town, released the year prior. Setting his signature spoken intros to a new cast of small town eccentrics (perhaps modeled on his childhood locale in Mannford, Oklahoma), this early career high-point presents Hazlewood with all of his singular assets already intact: playful lyrics veering toward the bizarre, wry delivery and wonderfully understated pop-country song craft."

"Riding the crest of successive hit-making for Duane Eddy, Sanford Clark, Dean Martin and Nancy Sinatra, the ever-industrious Lee Hazlewood still found time to release his excellent third solo album in 1965. His second solo recording for the Reprise label, Friday's Child indulges his signature country-pop flare and pioneering use of vocal reverb. With electric guitar leads, harp and female backup vocals, the album finds Hazlewood embellishing his arrangements, though some of its strongest moments draw their impact only from his rich timbre. Some artists develop their voice for years; Hazlewood's third album proves it was an innate and irrevocable gift. Weepy guitar leads kick off the title track and Hazlewood takes up the story of twinkling sorrow and bad luck. He often speckles pain with humor, but 'Friday's Child' is one of his most purely somber ballads. Elsewhere, with finger snaps, sparse backup vocals and Hazlewood's emotive intonation, the intro of 'Houston' alone could carry on entirely a cappella and still endure as a classic. The composition made a hit for Dean Martin, but the Friday's Child version shows Hazlewood's inimitable skill as a vocal stylist. Mostly lacking the dada-esque humor of his first two albums, Friday's Child places Hazlewood in league with the era's greatest traditional songwriters, though one for whom pop conventions were to be bucked and cast aside."

"Light In The Attic's Lee Hazlewood Archive Series continues with an expanded reissue of Lee Hazlewood's debut album. Re-mastered from the original tapes, this is the first time Trouble Is a Lonesome Town has been available in its original mono mix since the 1960s. This is an essential purchase for Hazlewood fans or anyone curious about the man before the mustache. Originally released in 1963, Trouble... finds the bohemian cowboy sketching out a vivid picture of a backwater place named Trouble, where trouble with a small 't' is never far away. 'Trouble is little and it's lonesome,' he says, on the title track, 'you won't find it on any map, but you can take three steps in any direction and you're there.' Lee says plenty on the album. The first voice you hear is Hazlewood's spoken-word narration. It's a format the singer-songwriter would revisit frequently, introducing his stirring songs with a touch fireside storytelling in the rich, Texan drawl he'd tried hard to lose during years he was struggling to make it as an aspiring radio DJ. Each mini, pre-song poem seems to impart unexpected wisdom. Indeed, if the record sounds remarkably wise and mature for a debut album, Hazlewood was, of course, no spring chicken on making this debut. 34 years old at the time of the album's release, he was already a seasoned producer, writer and publisher with dozens of hits under his belt and a few singles under his own name and more under the pseudonym 'Mark Robinson' -- all of which are included here in this reissue."

RSD Black Friday 2012 release. "Part of the sheer joy of Light in the Attic's excavation of Lee Hazlewood's back catalogue has been exploring the output of his own, late '60s label, Lee Hazlewood Industries, which issued dozens of long forgotten 45s and LPs. Whether acid-folk, country-rock, pop-psych or soul, LHI artists were united by the patronage of the underdog hero of 1960s music, the mustachioed maverick Lee Hazlewood. The best of these have been now collected in You Turned My Head Around, a lavishly packaged, 3000-edition box set of eleven 45s, featuring such LHI favorites as Suzi Jane Hokom, Honey Ltd., Kitchen Cinq, Ann-Margret, and of course the undeniable Mr Lee. Though Lee Hazelwood neither sings nor appears on many of these tracks, You Turned My Head Around still tells the listener much about the cult singer-songwriter, producer, film star, and latter-day cowboy. Like Hazlewood's own output, these are pop songs colored by sadness, pain, and wisdom. Hazlewood's character is there in every long, spiral groove thanks to his stunning production."

"A House Safe For Tigers is the soundtrack to one of the seven TV movies Lee Hazlewood made with the director Torbjörn Axelman during his period living in Sweden in the early 1970s. Hazlewood had moved there to lay low and to help his son avoid the draft, but wound up finding happiness and creative freedom. Many of the albums recorded in Sweden made their way no further than Scandinavia, but of them all, A House Safe For Tigers is the holy grail for collectors, often changing hands for hundreds of dollars. Originally only available in Sweden, this marks the first time Tigers has been reissued and available the world over. The movie was a 'semi-documentary' featuring Hazlewood and his friend Axelman, looking back to childhood and contemplating the meaning of life. In it, Hazlewood runs a marathon, tells anecdotes about a bum who cured his stutter and convinces a group of Swedish children to take sides against Richard Nixon. 'It's strange, very strange,' Hazlewood said, 'But we meant it to be strange. It's not necessary to see A House Safe For Tigers to enjoy the soundtrack, of course. Despite the fact that it was never released outside of Sweden, the music's hallowed reputation -- cultivated in the intervening decades by the privileged few who were able to hear it -- is testament to the strength of its material. First ever reissue. Re-mastered from original master tapes. Includes new liner notes by Wyndham Wallace, interviewing director Torbjörn Axelman."

"With his handlebar moustache and booming baritone, Lee Hazlewood was one of the defining stars of the late '60s. Though he's perhaps best known for his work with Nancy Sinatra (including writing mega-hit 'These Boots Are Made For Walking'), Hazlewood did stunning work away from that particular glamour queen and found latter day champions in Beck, Sonic Youth, and Jarvis Cocker. Now, for Record Store Day 2012, we are kicking off our excavation of the Lee Hazlewood archives with this anthology, Singles, Nudes & Backsides, collecting the best of Lee's solo songs and duets from his LHI (Lee Hazlewood Industries) imprint. As a true legend of the great American songbook and a rebellious pioneer who left behind a lengthy trail of echo laden pop masterpieces, Lee's influence continues to reverberate today. Between 1968-71, Hazlewood not only released his finest solo work, but produced numerous artists on LHI. From acid-folk and country-rock to pop-psych and soul, LHI issued dozens of long forgotten 45s and LPs. This series will include material from LHI (re-mastered for the first time from the original analog tapes), along with Lee's output for other labels, rarities, unreleased gems, and the films of Torbjörn Axelman. See the sleeve: surrounded by nude girls, each wearing a fake moustache, Hazlewood wears a suit, ever-so-slightly awkwardly playing the role of the '60s playboy. Just like the picture, the songs present a man conflicted; he's the tender-hearted romantic, the broken-hearted loser and the rugged cowboy, all in one. It's there in the western swing of 'Califia (Stone Rider)', the loneliness of 'The Bed' and the bleak beauty of 'If It's Monday Morning.' Hazlewood's tremulous voice was made for duets (indeed, he wrote 'Some Velvet Morning', one of the greatest of all time); here, Suzi Jane Hokom, Ann-Margret and Nina Lizell play counterpart to his manly tones. In the wonderful liner notes, written by British journalist Wyndham Wallace, the writer describes his friend Hazlewood as 'a curmudgeonly, unpredictable sort at the best of times, as impatient with his own talent as he is with other people.' The Hazlewood Wallace knew was puzzled by the growing interest in him in the last two decades of his life, which was ended by cancer at age 78." Includes a 40-page full-color booklet with extensive liner notes and photos.

Repressed; gatefold 2LP version. "With his handlebar moustache and booming baritone, Lee Hazlewood was one of the defining stars of the late '60s. Though he's perhaps best known for his work with Nancy Sinatra (including writing mega-hit 'These Boots Are Made For Walking'), Hazlewood did stunning work away from that particular glamour queen and found latter day champions in Beck, Sonic Youth, and Jarvis Cocker. Now, for Record Store Day 2012, we are kicking off our excavation of the Lee Hazlewood archives with this anthology, Singles, Nudes & Backsides, collecting the best of Lee's solo songs and duets from his LHI (Lee Hazlewood Industries) imprint. As a true legend of the great American songbook and a rebellious pioneer who left behind a lengthy trail of echo laden pop masterpieces, Lee's influence continues to reverberate today. Between 1968-71, Hazlewood not only released his finest solo work, but produced numerous artists on LHI. From acid-folk and country-rock to pop-psych and soul, LHI issued dozens of long forgotten 45s and LPs. This series will include material from LHI (re-mastered for the first time from the original analog tapes), along with Lee's output for other labels, rarities, unreleased gems, and the films of Torbjörn Axelman. See the sleeve: surrounded by nude girls, each wearing a fake moustache, Hazlewood wears a suit, ever-so-slightly awkwardly playing the role of the '60s playboy. Just like the picture, the songs present a man conflicted; he's the tender-hearted romantic, the broken-hearted loser and the rugged cowboy, all in one. It's there in the western swing of 'Califia (Stone Rider)', the loneliness of 'The Bed' and the bleak beauty of 'If It's Monday Morning.' Hazlewood's tremulous voice was made for duets (indeed, he wrote 'Some Velvet Morning', one of the greatest of all time); here, Suzi Jane Hokom, Ann-Margret and Nina Lizell play counterpart to his manly tones. In the wonderful liner notes, written by British journalist Wyndham Wallace, the writer describes his friend Hazlewood as 'a curmudgeonly, unpredictable sort at the best of times, as impatient with his own talent as he is with other people.' The Hazlewood Wallace knew was puzzled by the growing interest in him in the last two decades of his life, which was ended by cancer at age 78."

"One of the true idiosyncratic geniuses of pop and country music, Lee Hazlewood recorded this fourth solo record in 1966. The Very Special World Of Lee Hazlewood features his unique combination of pop, country, lounge and folk complimented by his singular vocal delivery and off-kilter story songs. This is Hazlewood's first release for the MGM label and is widely regarded as one of his best solo albums. Features his version of the classic 'These Boots Are Made For Walking.' New detailed liner notes."